One in six British drivers says they have had a near-miss they blame directly on faded or missing road markings, according to a survey of 2,000 motorists published by the RAC in early 2025. The findings put numbers behind a complaint that has been building for years on social media, in council inboxes, and in dashcam footage shared online: the white lines that separate lanes, mark junctions, and warn of hazards are wearing away faster than they are being repainted.
The RAC survey, one of the most detailed examinations of the issue to date, found that 21% of respondents said most road markings in their local area had faded significantly, while seven in ten reported at least some deterioration. For a road network that relies on painted guidance to keep traffic flowing safely, those numbers point to a systemic maintenance gap, not a handful of problem spots.
What is actually vanishing
Centre lines, the broken or solid white markings that separate opposing traffic, are among the most commonly reported casualties. According to the RAC data, drivers on single carriageways and busy A-roads describe stretches where the dividing line has worn down to faint smudges in the wheel tracks, leaving little visible separation between their lane and oncoming vehicles. The problem is especially acute after resurfacing or patch repairs, when contractors sometimes leave fresh tarmac unmarked for weeks or months.
Junction markings are disappearing almost as quickly. The survey found that 36% of drivers said directional arrows painted on the carriageway had partially or fully gone, while stop lines, give-way triangles, and zebra crossing stripes were also flagged as badly worn. At roundabouts and traffic-light junctions, missing arrows force drivers to guess which lane feeds which exit, a situation the RAC described as creating a real and growing safety risk.
The near-misses behind the numbers
The 16% near-miss figure translates to millions of drivers across Britain who say they have come close to a collision because the road surface failed to tell them where to be. In the RAC’s findings, the incidents cluster around specific scenarios: late braking at junctions where stop lines have vanished, last-second lane changes on dual carriageways when dividers appear too late, and head-on scares on rural roads where the centre line is effectively invisible.
Sixty-three percent of respondents said they had been forced to guess where lanes were because the paint was too worn to read. Drivers described drifting toward oncoming traffic without realising it, only alerted when an approaching car flashed its headlights. Others reported overshooting junctions entirely because there was no visible stop line to cue them. The RAC called the pattern a “frightening” number of near-crashes caused not by reckless driving but by infrastructure that no longer communicates basic information.
Why the lines are fading
Road markings in the UK are typically applied as thermoplastic material or cold-applied paint, both of which degrade under traffic, weather, and UV exposure. On high-volume roads, markings can lose their retro reflectivity, the property that makes them visible in headlights, within two to three years. Local authorities are responsible for maintaining markings on most roads, while National Highways handles the strategic road network (motorways and major A-roads).
The financial pressure on councils is a major factor. Local authority spending on roads in England fell in real terms over the decade to 2023, according to analysis by the Asphalt Industry Alliance, and road markings compete for the same stretched budgets as pothole repairs and resurfacing. When money is tight, repainting is often deferred, particularly on roads that have recently been resurfaced and technically have a fresh surface, even if no new lines have been laid.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams has pointed to this maintenance gap as the core of the problem, arguing that markings are treated as an afterthought rather than a frontline safety feature. “Road markings are one of the most cost-effective safety measures available,” Williams said in commentary accompanying the survey. “Letting them fade to the point where drivers can’t see them is a false economy.”
Night driving and bad weather make it worse
The risks multiply after dark and in rain. Worn thermoplastic loses its glass-bead content, the tiny reflective spheres embedded in the surface that bounce headlight beams back to the driver. Without that retro reflectivity, markings that are faintly visible in daylight can disappear entirely at night, especially on wet roads where standing water further scatters light.
Drivers in the RAC survey singled out night and wet-weather driving as the conditions where faded markings felt most dangerous. Some said they now avoid unfamiliar routes after dark because they cannot trust the road surface to guide them. Others described relying on cat’s eyes, kerb lines, and the tail lights of the car ahead as substitutes for lane markings, a workaround that breaks down on quieter roads where there may be no vehicle to follow.
What drivers and authorities can do
The RAC’s guidance to drivers is straightforward: treat roads with poor markings as higher-risk environments. That means reducing speed to give more reaction time, increasing following distance, and paying closer attention to signs and signals rather than relying on road paint alone. At junctions where stop lines or arrows have faded, the advice is to approach cautiously and look for secondary cues such as traffic lights, road signs, or the behaviour of other vehicles.
Drivers can also report problem locations. Most local councils accept reports through their websites or through the FixMyStreet platform, which logs issues and forwards them to the responsible authority. National Highways operates its own reporting system for motorways and trunk roads. The RAC has urged authorities to prioritise repainting at junctions and on high-speed roads where the consequences of confusion are most severe.
As of early 2026, the Department for Transport has not announced a dedicated funding programme for road marking renewal, though ministers have acknowledged the broader pressures on local road maintenance. For now, the gap between what drivers need to see and what the road surface actually shows them continues to widen, one faded line at a time.
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